VARIETY Posted: Thurs., May 1, 2008, 2:34pm PT Rachid Bouchareb runs to 'River' Blethyn set for film about London terror attacks By ALI JAAFAR Franco-Algerian helmer Rachid Bouchareb, whose Oscar-nominated 2006 pic "Days of Glory" generated boffo box office, is prepping "London River," starring Brenda Blethyn. The $3 million project about the terror attacks in London on July 7, 2005, is funded by Franco-German broadcaster Arte and Gallic web France 3. U.K.-based shingle the Bureau and Bouchareb's Tessalit Prods. are producing. Blethyn ("Atonement") and Sotigui Kouyate ("The Truth About Charlie") star as strangers who come to London to find their son and daughter who have been missing since the bombings. They discover their children had been living together at the time of the attacks. Lensing begins May 28 in London. "It's a beautiful, compelling story," said the Bureau's Bertrand Faivre. "It's wonderful when you find a filmmaker like Rachid who knows how to handle subject matter like this and doesn't need a big budget." While pic was envisaged for TV, the strength of Bouchareb's script has persuaded producers to look for an international theatrical release in a similar way that "The Road to Guantanamo" preemed on U.K. TV but also enjoyed fest success, winning the Golden Bear at Berlin and being picked up by foreign distribs. Bouchareb is also prepping "Outside the Law," his follow-up to "Days of Glory," which was about soldiers from France's North African colonies who helped liberate Gaul from the Nazis during WWII. Pic helped change French law by persuading the authorities to put pensions for the colonial war vets on the same footing as those of France's war vets. "Outside the Law," which Bouchareb will start filming in February, takes the "Days" story forward to the Algerian battles in Paris for independence from France in the wake of WWII. .